Psalm 53
an accusatory portrayal of vicious deeds (vv. 2–5*), beginning with lament over the criminal behavior of the fools (v. 2*), continued by the investigation of the judging God who describes his conclusions in a discourse (vv. 3–4*), and culminating with a further citation of an accusing question by the heavenly divine judge (v. 5*); proclamation of the fall of the evildoers and encouraging address to those in trouble (v. 6*); concluding petition for the salvation of Israel and a look to the future filled with hope (v. 7*).
Psalm 52 sketches the profile of the evil ones whose destructive action is then lamented in Psalm 53.24 At the same time, however, p 44 Psalm 53 proclaims divine judgment on these transgressors, a judgment that will bring rescue to the persecuted and those threatened with death. Then Psalms 54 and 55 petition for that saving divine judgment.
The foolishness of “the fool” is described under a twofold, mutually conditioned aspect. On the one hand, he has a false view of the world and does not recognize the order of righteousness placed within it by the creator God; this wrong “idea of the world” is expressed in his false thinking about God, which the psalm summarizes in a single quotation: “God is not there!” At the same time this false thinking about God, which takes no account either of God’s power or of God’s will to be involved in the world, prevents him from seeing the world and life as they really are; that is why he is not a “wise person” who follows the way of life, but a “fool” who is on the way of destruction, that is, he destroys life and in the long run will destroy and be destroyed by his own life.
Psalm 52 sketches the profile of the evil ones whose destructive action is then lamented in Psalm 53.24 At the same time, however, p 44 Psalm 53 proclaims divine judgment on these transgressors, a judgment that will bring rescue to the persecuted and those threatened with death. Then Psalms 54 and 55 petition for that saving divine judgment.